Plum Butter or German Pflaumenmus

Plum Butter or German Pflaumenmus in German is a German jam specialty and you cannot make this bread spread with some other fruit then the Italian plums or “Zwetschgen” in German. They call it “Powidl” in the Bohemian and Austrian cuisine and it is used not only as a bread spread but also as a filling for different pastries and cakes. In Bohemia they used dried prunes originally for the Powidl.
Plum Butter is dark brown and needs to cooks for quite a while. You might think that this is not tastefully but it is.  Try it out. You just need Italian prunes (see photo) and the best is to get your own tree! Sometimes you can find them on local farmer’s markets.

Ingredients German Plum Butter

3 kg Italian plums
1 kg sugar, brown
3 cinnamon sticks or 1 tbsp ground
1 point of a knife ground cloves

Cooking Instructions German Plum Butter

– Wash plums, let dry a bit with a kitchen cloth, remove pits.
– Cut plums into smaller pieces or just leave them as halves or quarters.
– Fill them In a large pan with the sugar. Let sit covered over night.
– Next day mix with a wooden spoon. Add cinnamon and cloves.
– Bring to a boil without having mixed them. Reduce heat.
– Let cook for 2-3 hours.

– If you like you can puree the jam with a stick mixer but it’s rather not necessary.
– While jam is still hot fill in prepared jars.
(Preparation Jars: Fill boiling hot wate rin each jar and rinse. place upside down on a clean kitchen cloth. Jars need to be without any bacteria, so it’s better to use them after they had been rinsed with the hot water).
– Close with a lid and keep them for about 20 min upside down, then turn them into normal position.

When is it done?
Use a wooden spoon and draw a line  with the plum jam.  If you can see the line very well, the plum butter is done.

Store the Pflaumenmus in a cool place.

Recipesource